Hot Topics:

Sparring Partners: Battle of the Halls

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
02/09/2013 06:35:14 AM EST

Canton, Ohio, is not nearly as idyllic as Cooperstown, N.Y. But it does have a real connection to the early history of pro football (Canton Bulldogs), unlike the fable of Abner Doubleday drawing up baseball by the shores of Lake Otsego. Also, Canton this summer will welcome real living greats into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Cooperstown will see three dead legends go into the Baseball Hall of Fame. David Pevear and Chaz Scoggins weigh in on which is really America's greatest sports shrine.

DAVID PEVEAR: Chaz, I mean no disrespect to a distinguished member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and conscientious Hall of Fame voter. But last Saturday it hit me like a blind-side shot from the newly immortalized Warren Sapp that "Canton" has surpassed "Cooperstown" as America's preeminent sporting shrine. The latest class for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame really does seem larger-than-life (it does include 6-foot-9, 345-pound Jonathan Ogden and the Big Tuna, Bill Parcells). While the baseball writers this year played moral guardians at the gate to their creaky old Hall, "America's Game" celebrated one of its strongest class of inductees (and with no visible signs of post-concussion syndrome). Canton (Ohio) has much holier ring to it now than does Cooperstown. Where is that anyway? New York?

CHAZ SCOGGINS: And all this time I thought the Pro Football Hall of Fame was in Canton, Mass. It may as well be in Canton, China, for all I care. That's how little attention I pay to it.

Advertisement

What you're suggesting is heresy, Dave, pure heresy! Now I'm not going to defend my narrow-minded, short-sighted moralists in the BBWAA, because you know I don't agree with them. But I will defend the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the epitome of sports shrines. Fans can debate ad infinitum over the Hall of Fame credentials of baseball players because they know and understand what the stats mean. Who really knows why Jim Otto or John Hannah are in the football hall. Because Otto hiked fewer balls over the head of the punter than any other center, Hannah because he could pull to the end of the line faster than any other guard, or because both their last names are palindromes?

PEVEAR: I concede Baseball Hall of Fame arguments are more fun than Pro Football Hall of Fame arguments. The baseball statistics are right there, clear as banjo hitter's urine sample, to be analyzed. And yet Candy Cummings and Rabbit Maranville still made it to Cooperstown. Go figure. But I'm speaking more about cache and vigor within America's consciousness. Canton is now what Cooperstown used to be before the great American myth of baseball as our national pastime was dispelled by the TV ratings and touch football games at the Kennedy compound. That's all I'm saying. Plus, having a 46-member selection committee as opposed to the nearly 600 voting members of the BBWAA keeps the football versions of Aaron Sele from getting a vote. (That would be like giving Hugh Millen a vote.)

SCOGGINS: Yeah, and some people would have voted for George Lincoln Rockwell for President of the United States if he hadn't been assassinated before the 1972 election. But voters, for all their quirks, will do a better job than committees, Dave. It's those old-timers committees that put guys like Cummings and Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance in the Baseball Hall of Fame, not the baseball writers. I'm baffled when I see the list of candidates for Canton and players I think are sure-fire Hall of Famers get passed over by the committee.

PEVEAR: Certainly players like Jerry Kramer, Andre Reed, Johnny Robinson and Lester Hayes (to name but a few) seem to be glaring omissions from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But conversely, I would argue there are considerably more guys in the Baseball Hall of Fame who do not belong than in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And I love how football inductees choose a family member, coach, teacher, teammate -- someone important in getting them to where they are -- to present them for induction. Symbolizes the ultimate team game. Football's bronze busts also are more magnificent than baseball's bronze plaques. I could do without the yellow blazers. I'll give you that.

SCOGGINS: Hey, there's no room for the Kramers and Reeds when a Hall of Fame needs to make room for convicted felons and alleged murderers like O.J. Simpson. I'm willing to bet there are a lot more juiced players in Canton than there ever will be in Cooperstown. Football may be the more popular game with the public right now, Dave, but it will never have the mythic aura that surrounds baseball. When it comes to Halls of Fame, Cooperstown will always be Valhalla.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.